As I watched the two clips of Hamlet, I was struck by how similarly the two actresses acted, yet they were so different. While reading this scene, I pictured Ophelia as a girl who received a ton of useless advise from everybody who was older than her. For some reason, I felt as if she was just playing along and not taking any of the advise seriously. The actress playing Ophelia in the Zeffirelli version of the film perfectly acts out exactly my thoughts on Ophelia. She continues to just laugh off all of the "wise" advise which she is receiving. She is not snobby and acting like a smart Alec but by her behavior, we can tell that the words of her brother and her father really don't mean much to her. Instead of stopping to listen, she attempts to avoid more advise by continuing with the task at hand. On the other hand, in the other Hamlet film, the actress playing Ophelia becomes more and more annoyed as her bother gives her advise. Her temper only worsens when her father speaks to her and attempts to rub more wisdom into her. She does not stay relaxed like the other character. Instead she became increasingly angry, as if what they were saying actually bothered her. This, in the end causes her to finally really snap at Laertes and call him a hypocrite. In both cases, I think we can really see that Ophelia isn't the stupid girl that everybody thinks she is. She is actually quite intelligent. She keeps her thoughts in her mind and superficially agrees to listen to avoid conflict and others' doubt in her.
Great post Dave, you have a lot of great insight in here. I also posted about the two Ophelia videos, and I must say, I can relate to your views on the actresses. Although they played the same part, I agree that they were very different. Your insight into the emotions of the actresses is great and I think your contrasting of the two characters is very analytical and true. I like how in the end you brought both cases together and compared them. What I really enjoyed about these videos was that they provoked me to think about all of the other possibilities and directions that the actresses could have gone with the character. You did a great job comparing and contrasting the two characters in your post.
ReplyDeleteAwesome Post Dave! I totally agree with you on the two videos of Ophelia. I also imagined Ophelia as a girl who was receiving a bunch of useless information from everyone who is older than her. And the Zeffirelli version of Hamlet did an amazing portrayal of that. The other version of the movie is not really how I pictured Ophelia acting to her brother and her father. This two films truly do show how Ophelia is not the naive girl her father and her brother thing she is. I enjoyed reading about your ideas on the two different films on how they were the same, and on how they were different. Great Job!
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